Against All Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Mixed Feelings and Frustration

    Since my false confession and conviction of an attempted lewd act on a fictitious child I have witnessed too many events speaking of 9-11 in particular and many of the vulnerabilities that we face from terrorists.  I am frustrated because I know few officials can beat their the apathy and power struggles with in their own organizations much less learn about or seek assistance from agencies that may have the knowledge to help them defend us all.  The frustrations stem from the fact that it was my job to defend the JCS Command Center and the President of the United States.  In that position I was not only trained to look for vulnerabilities it was my responsibility to learn more and understand more about non traditional targets and weapons or rather what could be used as a weapon.

    You have to try to understand the culture of the terrorist.  What I am trying to say is these people grew up in a world of war. They grew up in most cases with out books and most certainly with out TV or even a radio station that would give them any more information than their religious leaders and government would want them to know.  They grew up with out hundreds of billions of dollars of tax dollars to spend on weapon systems or even to study what a military target is.  With out money they learned how to make every day things into weapons.  As we all witnessed on 9-11.  Think about it they took over aircraft with simple box cutters and pepper spray that you can buy nearly any where either item for under $5.00. I can certainly go on and on here but will not.

    My mixed feelings are I am a man well trained in this area and once highly respected for my knowledge, abilities, and yes even my "sixth" sense in this area. Now I am forced to stand by and able to do nothing to help defend our own innocent people.  I am torn between wanting to defend innocent people and a deep resentment for a government that allowed what happened to my family and I to protect the reputation of a corrupted police system. 

    At least once I did get involved when the "Smiley" bomber was traveling through the Mid-West planting bombs in rural mail boxes.  The FBI was stumped and looking for any assistance in helping them apprehend the ones responsible for this.  However due to the division of responsibilities in law enforcement and the rivalries between them they had no clue how to seek assistance from another agency that could and I personally believed helped them in the end.  What I did was to send them an email and explained how our cellular telephone systems work through out the country.  I explained that so many people now have cell phones and would never think about going anywhere with out them they take them every where into church even into the bathroom with them in fear of missing a call.  Well I also know how the cell system tracks any phone in the country to know where to route a call so that the phone receives the call.  Each cell tower has a limited range and when your phone is traveling it is always sending out it's unique code to each of the towers that our in range of your phone with your unique id code.  Then the towers that are receiving your code feed that information back to one central location that all cell systems must query in order to know which one of hundreds of towers to send your individual call too.  It is not magic that you have a cell phone from Los Angeles or Washington DC and as you travel all any one has to do is dial your phone number and you can receive your call in Des Moines, Iowa seemingly instantly. 

    With my knowledge of how this system works, I explained to the FBI hot line how the US Secret Service (USSS) was the federal agency that had jurisdiction for cell phone fraud.  I also told them they would be able to assist them in finding any cell phone that was with in range of a particular cell tower that would have covered the area where the bombs were placed.  If they would get the USSS involved they could then I was sure find one unique phone number that was in fact in each of the areas where the bombs were placed.   My guess is that they took my advice since I explained my credentials including my service in the White House Communications Agency but my military training in Electronic Warfare.  I say they took my advice because with in 2 - 3 days of my email I learned they actually called the bomber on his cell phone.  The other advantage of this system is that in real time the FBI could have located this individual using the system to with in a 5-10 mile radius then with portable systems track him down to his exact location with in that 5-10 mile radius. 

    Yet here I am sitting in a small apartment that functions as a house arrest for me since I am unable to work full time as a convicted felon and have very little left of my military retirement and VA disability pension to survive on.  You see my x-wife was able to go to court in Idaho and after only 15 years of marriage to me during my 20 years of service convinced a judge to award her some 60% of my pension and triple my child support payments.  I have not of course been able to pay a single child support payment since then because it would have represented over 100% of my income at the time.  I could go to court and get that changed but now with out an attorney and they cost more money than I have so I am stuck with it.  My x-wife is living with a man she started to see and have an affair with 3 years before I came to California and as I understand it is actually paying his x-wife alimony to his x-wife because of the affair he was having with my x-wife because we were all still married at the time. Just another example of a corrupt system this one just happens to be the civil system.  I was not even offered a chance to appear in court it was done with out my presence or knowledge until it was over.  Not that it would have mattered anyway.  The probation department in San Diego would have never allowed me to travel to Idaho to prove the truth.

    Now back to more of the intentional subject of this page.  Shortly after 9-11 I put together a several page document that I tried to share with the government about simple things I knew in time would be used against us to kill yet more innocent people.  Today in Glendale, California one of the most simple vulnerabilities I saw happened with a train wreck that killed 10 people and injured another 200. Fortunately it was not a terrorist act but one that could have and should have been avoided if anyone would have either allowed me to exercise my knowledge or at least let me participate.  I pointed out that the rail road system in this country is very vulnerable to derailment and sabotage almost anywhere that could cause even more disastrous results than that of today.

    Now after 4 years of silence I feel compelled to release some more of my notes and point out many things that could be used against us.  I feared releasing this information in fear that it would be used against us but I also now fear that if I don't say something I will see many others of the things I know are at risk come to pass with even more deaths as a result.  This list is far from being all inclusive, it was simply put together as I thought of them or remembered studies we had done before while I was in the government.  So what I am trying to point out is the crude nature of the list. Also I know that alone my thoughts are only my thoughts and it would take a group of people like me to actually analyze and evaluate the real risks.  Some of the things I list if a terrorist were to act on could make the events of 9-11 look like a playground skinned knee in comparison.

    With out further narrative here is the list that I last updated on 16 March of 2002:

Security Concerns 

1. Boilers in every building can be turned into a powerful bomb with out bringing in any material. Check operators, ensure regular shift supervision, and use two-man control if necessary.  How many systems controlled via a network and Internet? How is the electronic security on that? Passwords changed often?  How many characters in Password? Number & letters symbols required?  IE can terrorists from any phone line anywhere in the world connect and cause harm?
2. Ventilation systems as a means to spread Biological or Chemical weapons. Know your service personal. How many connected through Internet?  Can agents be placed weeks months in advance of a release from any remote computer terminal?
3. Back up generators fuel storage is it safe?
4. Food handlers in restaurants cafeterias.
5. Railroad yards, crossings, and by-pass tracks?  Get manifests from RR companies know exactly what is on what train.  Watch crossing in metro areas.  Restrict extremely hazardous material in metro areas. What chemicals / agents are stored in “empty” tanks.  “Empty” tanks are like unloaded guns in some cases.  Verify the manifest for the train.
6. Live stockyards, their food and water supplies.
7. Human water and waste plants.  Human waste in this country can be deadly after decades of sewage treatment we don’t have the immunity anymore that other countries have.
8. Power plants.  Obvious but don’t forget long haul transmission lines.  How much power disruption will it take to cause a major fail safe shut down?
9. Places that sell compressed air tanks. Air tanks can be used to dispense agents.
10. Mail obvious now.
11. Keep work areas and yards clean and install cameras in storage yards.  Know your normal surroundings, notice when things are out of place or don’t belong.  Campaign for all business’s to clear all areas of non essential materials.
12. First responders learn to recognize normal and not normal situations.
13. All public safety personal carry in vehicles hazardous material recognition materials and what to do first.
14. Review and practice evacuation plans annually and head count procedures.  Accountability must be gained for personnel.  Rendezvous points secured? Covered and non covered? Retro areas / staging areas for public transportation equipment for evacuation of personnel, diverse from emergency equipment.  Evacuation routes secured from traps?
15. National Guard to patrol every inch of the rail system hourly? Daily? Guard railroad yards and refueling depots. Guards on hazardous material trains? Guards at crossings in metro areas for trains carrying hazardous material.
16. Compressed air tanks who is buying? Any new buyers? Large quantities?
17. EOC’s staffed with qualified NBC personnel?
18. Emergency supplies for employees.  Inventories updated?  Water, blanket, first aid kits, high-energy foods, 2-3 days?  Emergency breathers?

19. Hospitals emergency supplies of antidotes? Chemical and biological agents.
20. Long haul pipe lines are easy targets.
21. Telecommunications centers they are easy give a ways when you see dozens of antennas on buildings.  Particularly Los Angeles areas around the One Wilshire building are centers for areas and region telecommunications hubs.  That also means underground facilities are vulnerable. 
22. Don’t assume that since maybe an area has not been attacked or exploited that it is because they can’t do it or don’t know it is a problem area.  Domestic hate groups and terrorist will take advantage of the situation and use that against us.  You can bet they know the vulnerable areas.
23. Here is the FBI’s threat document from Y2K Megiddo Report  It will speak to quite a bit of the issues going on right now.  It was written in 1999 and speaks to 2001 as the beginning of the new millennium and the beginning of the biggest race war in the history of the world. 
24. Can fishing areas be contaminated? Nuke or chemical wastes? Then ingested by innocents?
25. I know there are many areas that can be turned against us what I don’t know any more than anyone else is what will be used or if it will be used against us.  Some areas are such big threats to business disruption and loss of life that they require increased care.
26. As always never let leadership focus on one single issue, make sure you have specialist focusing on the specific issues, but leadership has to be concerned even more with issues that have not surfaced yet, and issues that may turn serious if forgotten about for too long.
27.  Increased vigilance by security forces everywhere, increase areas to check don’t rely on locks, and security cameras alone.  Most security devices available to the public only keep honest people honest.  A determined group or individual can easily by pass them.
28. Make available national assets if at all possible to determine vulnerable electronic security problems with key facilities.  I am relatively sure the Internet monitors via networks and most pipelines.
29. Trucks or any vehicles out of place
30. Vehicles that leak fluids.
31. Tank trucks that leak.
32. Basically simple things, know your surroundings know what is normal and what is not normal, if it does not belong or is not normal report it as soon as you know it is not normal and let experts figure it out.
33. Cyber terrorism is much more than hacking these days, so many crucial functions about our society is controlled on line.  Pipe lines, HVAC systems, supplies etc.  Any hacking attempt should be reported and studied as to what the potential was.  Try to learn what the threat was even if nothing happened.  Railroad switching is done on line through private networks? Or can it also be controlled by Internet connection? The potential here is fantastic threats go beyond simple.
34. In days past I know that low level nuke wastes from hospitals and such were often just trucked like garbage. Even biological wastes were just taken away but now any of that can be turned against us.  We need to keep our eyes open to the most simple every day things that we take for granted and try to understand if and how it can be used against us.
35. Air Traffic control facilities not just located at airports, but those in remote areas.
36. Of course damns, but they require large amounts of explosives to damage, but what about disruptions of services?
37. Underground fiber optic cables are very clearly marked in most states, remote mountain top hill top communication facilities, for Emergency services etc.
38. How much do they know about our EBS system and alert sirens and networks?
39. Don’t ever forget that because a foreign threat group may not understand our vulnerable areas does not mean that the domestic threat groups are ignorant of them as well.
40. Keep as much away from the public as you can with out risking critical information flow for their safety.  There is way to much information in the news for most anyone to digest the real threat of any of it.
41. Now is most defiantly the time for business to be aware of their backup plans to normal day-to-day operations.  Do they really have back ups to data off site? Is it secure? Is it next door? Is it across town or in another county? Everything needs to be reexamined based on today’s threats.  Not just a power disruption, a localized fire, flood, or other mother nature’s events.
42. Oil wells in public areas I know that LA county has many pumps right out in the open.  Remember what Sadam did in Kuwait.  How many oil pump fires in LA County would it take to cause a real panic, or real harm to the air quality there? One two? A dozen?
43. Bottom line look at every thing no matter how innocent and common it was yesterday and may still be today, look at it today very closely and make a new evaluation of is it safe or can it be a threat.  Quite often the simpler and the more innocent it is the worse it can be if turned around.
44. Major roads, bridges, waterways, tunnels. It does not have to be large explosives if a car collides with a tanker truck in a suicide action. 
45. Can currency be contaminated with bio or chemical agents then spread around?  I seem to remember in NBC School that LSD can be easily absorbed into the skin or at least some of it can.  There was a time it was used on military officers and NCOs by simply putting microdots in their offices on telephones etc.
46. School yards and especially universities where a large number of foreign students are always around. How do you know who belongs? Who is safe? Who is a threat?  Gathering information to take home a year from now is a threat.  Don’t just focus on the ones here today but the ones that were here a year or tens of years ago what did we already teach them? What are we teaching them today?
47. Are evacuation points for buildings and areas really secure? Or are they the trap waiting for the mice to come to them?  IE a bomb threat to a building, in reality there is no bomb in the building but the bad guys place in the general area of the evacuation point, When the people have been safely evacuated from the building the bomb detonates in the middle of the people leaving the building alone.
48. What kind of personal protection do the emergency personnel have with them? Not just protective vests, masks and clothing, what about common antidotes? For agents?
49. What have we done to beef up security at the nations chemical weapons depots? I know of one in California, one in Utah, one in Oregon I assume there are many more.  What about down wind information?
50. Speaking of down wind to EOCs have weather personnel on staff? Do they have people that can plot a down wind threat? How an agent will react given the current and projected weather?  I would have to assume at this point all that can and is automated by now.  My schooling is over 20 years old and long before the PC.  We learned how to project it all on paper.
51. Can government surplus chemical & biological detection equipment be given to local authorities?  Can National Guard or regular military then be used to instruct locals on how to use them?  Now is the time to work as close together as you can imagine leaving no area as sacred ground.
52. Halloween what a nightmare of possibilities that can happen today / tonight.
53. Maybe a very good idea now to watch all the Hollywood movies about terrorist attacks from the last 30 years.  Even the little known ones maybe what the bad guys saw 25 years ago and will know use against us. For instance could a small nuke be used to trigger an earthquake in California, like in the Superman movie? These guys have a way of turning fantasy into reality in the worst ways.
54. Look out on all aircraft that have to be pressurized, IE commercial jets. If the morons want to take out an aircraft all they have to do is simply go to the bath room at 35,000 feet and while waiting in line open one of the doors.  The loss of pressure and the door flying off is an 80% chance the whole aircraft will come down.  Of course he dies first but do they care?  Not to mention the shear terror it will cause across the world in that what happens next? Does every passenger have to be cuffed to their seat during the whole flight? Just need to think this one through too.
55. I can’t repeat my self enough look at the most simple everyday things and try to see how a person from an different culture may see it as a weapon. Such as a dry forest? A dry grass field? A gas station? How about our oil pumps and fields? Remember the Gulf War? Sadam Hussein used oil wells and fires to effectively still cause deaths today to US service personnel from fires 11 years ago.  What do you suppose would happen if terrorist decided to copy that and light off any number of oil pumps along the Southern California Coast Cities?  Remember the wind blows from West to East effectively they could poison the air for weeks / months if they ignite just a few.  I have driven by dozens of these pumps with no security at all.  These are real dangers to us considering our foes are not funded by big governments and large weapon stockpiles.  They are trained to use our every day conveniences against us we need to pay attention to them.
56. Brush fires and forest fires will be used against us. Even the Japanese in WWII saw this as a way to get to us.
57. The worst could be a firebomb in residential areas.  Efforts need to think how the simple pleasures in life can be deadly.
58. Or a terrorist that rents an apartment that uses natural gas for anything.  They could simply open the values in their own apartment then either set any simple timing device to start an ignition or very simply wait for nature to take it's course and provide for an innocent ignition of the gas.  Just think of a crowded apartment building with a hundred or more families and what could be lost for the cost of a months rent and a deposit. With out elaborate weapons or bombs.
59. Restaurants step up health inspections 4 times, nationalities of food handlers.